I Remember When...............

hm1996

hm1996

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Staff member
I'm sure we all have "I Remember When" moments. Let's hear yours!

I started reloading at a dear friend/mentor gunsmith's shop in 1952. He stocked primers and sold them @ $1.00/flat. That price was pretty much standard anywhere, for years. Was cleaning out the loading room and ran across this invoice for a case (5000) of LP primers in 2001.
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My dad was a bank manager and sold crop insurance. Same year as your Win, my dad said he had alot of points saved up. We looked thru the catalog of items points could be used for. A 20ga Rem Wingmaster caught the eye of both of us. 2 weeks later it was delivered to the house( we had told the postmaster it was ordered, he said he would bring to the house at lunch time so he could see it). My younger brother has it, many pheasant,duck even a couple deer. It still looks new.
 
These prices look pretty attractive, but I had a pretty good job in 1973 and grossed about $10/hr. Same job today averages 3x that amount which would translate to about $250 out the door for the 94.
 
When I was 12, I had a paper route. I saved up 35.99 and went to Westrin drug store on the corner. They sold guns and ammo, too. I handed the gal at the corner the cash, some of it in change, and asked for the model. 94 Winchester 30 30 rifle. She gets it down and starts to hand it to me. She stopped and asked, "Does your mother know you are buying this?" That was the background check. I said yes and went out the door. Then, the next pay day, I got a box of ammo. That was 60 years ago today.
 
When I was a kid in the early 70's the Coast to Coast store up town sold the Winchester 30-30 for 79.99. I wanted that gun bad and had the money from walking the fields many times but ended up with a couple 12 gauges, a 20 gauge, a Nylon 66 and a motorcycle instead. I finally got one pre safety model but always wished I would have bought it then.
 
April1973, 22yrs old and had been working in the mine for a little over a year and was going to get married in June. Heard about a small house on 7 acres some lady wanted to sell. Met with her and agreed on a price. Called the local Savings and Loan President that evening (as I was working dayshift) and explained the deal and my work situation. He said to call him back in a couple days at home again. On May 15 I went to the bank FOR THE FIRST TIME in this endeavor and signed the papers to become a homeowner---try that today :).
As a side note, I did grow up in the same part of town as him and knew him but not well.
 
I posted some of these photos before but wanted to say that these adds were from local newspaper from 2 different years, 1948 and 1951. As you can see, not a big difference in prices just 3 years apart. One of the photos in letters to Santa was written by the young girl when she was 6 yrs old and became my wife in 1963 and we are still happily married 62 years later!
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